Anointing the Sick.--The anointing of the sick with oil as recommended in St. James 5:14 and 15, has generally prevailed in the Universal Church and came to be called "Extreme Unction." There was an office for its use in the Prayer Book of 1549, but it was omitted in subsequent revisions because its use in most parts of the Church had become mechanical and confined to dying persons. The rite has been restored in some places on the authority of individual Bishops as a Scriptural practice. A Scottish Bishop calls it "the lost pleiad of the Anglican firmament," and says, "one must at once confess and deplore that a distinctly Scriptural practice has ceased to be commanded in the Church of England, for no one can doubt that a sacramental use of anointing the sick has been from the beginning." Annunciation, The.--A Feast of the Church held on March 25th, to commemorate the visit of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to announce to her the Incarnation of the Son of God, his message to her being, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His Name Jesus." The Feast of the Annunciation has been observed from the very earliest times, sermons being still extant which were preached on this day as early as A.D. 446. It is still observed with great {23} solemnity; Proper Psalms are appointed, being the 89th, 131st, 132d, and 138th, also Proper Lessons, as well as Collect, Epistle and Gospel. The Church color for Altar and other hangings is white. It is to be noted that the Feast of the Annunciation is placed among the DAYS OF OBLIGATION (which see). Antependium.--The name given to the covering hanging in front of the lectern, pulpit or Altar, and being the color of the Church Season. The Altar hanging is usually called the _Frontal_. Anthem.--Originally the same as Antiphon; "anthem" being simply the Anglicized form of the word. Later, the terms "anthem" and "antiphon" came to stand for two different ideas. _Anthem_ is any musical setting of words bearing upon the services of the day, other than a hymn or canticle, although the canticles are sometimes called anthems, as in the rubric before the _Venite_ in the Morning Prayer. The rubric in the Evening Prayer provides for an anthem after the Collect beginning, "Lighten our darkness." _Antiphon_ has come to mean a verse of Scripture which is sung wholly or in part before and after the Psalms or Canticles, and designed to strike the key-note of the teaching of the day. Antiphon.--(See ANTHEM).